The invention pertains to a circuit for driving an excitation coil of an electromagnetically driven reciprocating pump. Such pumps are described in DD-PS 120 51 4, DD-PS 213 472 or in DE-OS 23 07 435. These pumps serve as fuel injection devices. Thereby the exact metering of the fuel to be injected is of main importance. It is known how to effect the metering of the fuel to be injected by e.g. timing. However, a purely time-based control has been found disadvantageous, because the time window available between the minimum and maximum quantity of fuel to be injected is too small to control the quantity spectrum required for engine operation in a sufficiently differentiated and reproducible manner.